Copper prestrip to copper cyanide

CIM Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2017

S. N. Dixon
SND Consulting, Tucson, Arizona, USA

http://dx.doi.org/10.15834/cimj.2017.7

Maximizing the value of each tonne of processed ore is the goal for all operations. Cyanidation processing of gold-copper ores has been challenging since its first use in 1889. The current practice treats a bleed or the total flow of mill solution to recover copper as copper sulfide (by sulfidization, acidification, recycling, and thickening), or to recover the cyanide (by acidification-volatilizationneutralization). The process presented uses the adsorption of copper cyanide by carbon and the selective elution of copper from carbon to concentrate copper into a smaller stream. Copper contained in the smaller stream is precipitated as copper cyanide.